David Moyes was overwhelmed by the challenge of managing Manchester United
At the Manchester United training ground in recent months, some of the long-serving staff would come in and ask, with lips curled, “Are Everton in today?” It was a coded way of asking if the boss was in his office. David Moyes never did escape the disparaging label that he was an overpromoted Everton manager out of his depth from the day he walked, with trepidation, into Old Trafford.
“Are Everton in today?” It is an easy, sneering insult given that Moyes came from Goodison Park with ten staff, from assistants to scouts, analysts and soon added a £27 million midfielder.
Easy but misleading. Moyes did not turn United into Everton during his inglorious reign that has been dead for weeks, bar the contractual formalities. It has been far worse than that.
Everton had personality, underdog spirit. They overachieved. They had method. United have had nothing, just an alarming decline and no guarantees that they had hit the bottom under Moyes’s management.
As someone who has admired the Scot’s work, enjoyed his company and hoped the best for a straight and fiercely committed man, it has been excruciating to see United bereft of inspiration and, increasingly, motivation.
The saddest thing is that Moyes will depart without anyone even knowing what he was trying to build. He leaves no impression except memories of that ashen face, or slumping so deep in the dugout that it looked, understandably, as though he was trying to hide.
A lifetime in football deserves better than to be recalled for one failure but, just as Steve McClaren will spend the rest of his days answering questions about umbrellas, Moyes will always be dragged back to this wreckage. McClaren is proof that there are second acts in managerial lives but this was Moyes’s chance, his shot at the big time. He will not get another opportunity like it and a year’s salary, about £4.5 million, will feel like scant consolation considering the wounds to his professional reputation and pride.
It was a difficult job, made much harder by a change of chief executive and a squad not as good as last season’s title suggested, but no one should think it was impossible. Moyes found the challenges insurmountable because he was filled with doubt from the outset.
The seeds of ruin were sown from the day when he says that he was summoned to meet Ferguson, and fretted about going dressed in jeans. His reaction when offered the job was: “As you can imagine, the blood drained from my face.” Those are not the words of a man about to march into Old Trafford, tell Rio Ferdinand to pack his bags as a has-been, demand three new signings (or else), and reshape the place to his own uncompromising requirements.
From the start, Moyes’s attitude was a combination of wonder and terror. It was an appointment that was flawed from its inception, when Ferguson anointed him, with Ed Woodward and Joel Glazer involved only to apply the rubber stamp.
No formal interview or discussion among the club hierarchy, or setting out of definitive plans. Just a complacency that a year of transition, perhaps slipping to fourth place, was the worst that could happen.
Ferguson must carry most of the blame for the appointment, opting to choose a Glaswegian he hoped would continue his own work. He must have liked the idea of continuity, and Moyes regularly visited his office in the main stand at Old Trafford after matches, spending long hours discussing his travails.
Yet, ultimately, a leader must stand alone and nothing Ferguson said could help Moyes out of a pattern of indecision, and contradictions, as he was overwhelmed.
Mesut Özil was available last summer but Moyes did not want to spend a fortune on a No 10 having just thrown a fortune at Wayne Rooney. Then, out of desperation, he broke the club record to sign Juan Mata, a No 10.
Ferdinand was written off months ago but ended up not just in the starting XI but one of the first names on the teamsheet. Players such as Shinji Kagawa and Javier Hernández were shunted in and out, not knowing if they were part of first-team plans or outcasts. Line-ups were frequently changed, confusing the players. Players used to Ferguson’s inspiring talks found that, as results dipped, their spirit was being sapped by Moyes’s dourness.
Moyes lost Robin van Persie a long time ago and other senior players also began to lose the faith. Nemanja Vidic did not even bother asking United to make a counter-offer to his deal at Inter Milan. He just wanted to get away. Ryan Giggs kept his distance as the regime unravelled. The news that Danny Welbeck was agitating for a move left no doubt that the dressing-room unrest was spiralling dangerously out of control.
Woodward, the vice-chairman, must have picked up the rising volume of dissent. There was no way that the Glazers could give Moyes another £200 million to spend this summer.
They could not risk fresh humiliations that have come one after another, like punches; an unwanted list of records which will be capped by the ultimate embarassment if Liverpool win the title.
It was the wretched defeat away to Olympiacos in late February, and the rumblings of player discontent at that time, which convinced me that there was no way back.
This sacking has felt inevitable. Humiliation would only have deepened for everyone if Moyes had turned up to training, or headed off on more pointless scouting trips. He was in Porto last week, planning a summer overhaul but he must have known then that the job was slipping away from him. He never had much grip on it in the first place.
The job was too much for him. He will be back in management soon enough, hopefully rebuilding that reputation, but failure on this scale must leave deep scars.
Moyes’s coaching staff
Steve Round (assistant manager): A member of Steve McClaren’s coaching team at Middlesbrough and then England, had been Moyes’s assistant at Everton since 2008
Phil Neville (first-team coach): A member of United’s famous Class of ’92 and Moyes’s longstanding captain at Everton. Still working through his coaching badges with some questioning whether the job came too soon
Jimmy Lumsden (coach): Moyes’s long-term mentor dating back to their time together at Preston North End. Has kept a low profile since pitching up at United
Chris Woods (goalkeeping coach): Former England goalkeeper is credited with improving De Gea’s handling from aerial balls
How the nightmare unfolded
Aug 11, 2013 Manchester United win the Community Shield, beating Wigan Athletic 2-0, and six days later overcome Swansea City 4-1 in Moyes’s first league match.
Sep 1 Moyes suffers first defeat as Daniel Sturridge hands Liverpool victory at Anfield, with Wayne Rooney out nursing a head wound.
Sep 2 Marouane Fellaini joins for £27 million from Everton in the final hours of the transfer window.
Sep 17 United overcome Bayer Leverkusen 4-2 in Moyes’s first Champions League group game. Five days later United are thrashed 4-1 by Manchester City but they quickly recover to beat Liverpool in the Capital One Cup third round.
Sep 28 A shock 2-1 home reverse against West Bromwich Albion is followed by conceding a late equaliser to Southampton in their next league match at Old Trafford.
Nov 10 United beat Arsenal 1-0 thanks to Robin van Persie’s goal, closing the gap between the clubs to five points, and soon after secure their place in the Champions League knockout stage.
Dec 4 Bryan Oviedo adds more home misery, helping Everton to end their 21-year wait for a win at Old Trafford.
Dec 6 Rio Ferdinand shows first signs of discontent in the squad by criticising Moyes’s policy of leaving it late to pick his teams, claiming: “It turns you into a madman.” A day later they are beaten at home by Newcastle United and Moyes rejects claims by Mark Lawrenson, the BBC pundit, that Van Persie has asked to leave. Van Persie suffers thigh injury and is ruled out for seven weeks.
Dec 28 United make it six consecutive victories thanks to a 1-0 win away to Norwich City but soon lose Rooney for four weeks with a groin injury.
Jan 5, 2014 United exit the FA Cup at the hands of Swansea City and are soon knocked out of the Capital One Cup semi-final after Sunderland win on penalties. In between, they lose 3-1 to Chelsea.
Feb 7 Nemanja Vidic confirms he will leave at the end of the season.
Feb 9 Moyes describes a 2-2 draw with Fulham, the bottom club, as “as bad as it gets”.
Mar 16 Steven Gerrard scores two penalties and misses another as Liverpool beat United 3-0 at Old Trafford. United also lose by the same scoreline against City, also at home. Result ensures United are guaranteed to end the season with their lowest points total in Premier League history.
Apr 9 Despite Patrice Evra giving them the lead in the second leg, they are beaten by Bayern Munich in the Champions League quarter-finals.
Apr 20 Moyes’s return to Goodison Park results in a 2-0 win for his former club with Kevin Mirallas scoring. It confirms that United cannot qualify for the Champions League.
) but then followed it up with terrible ones, 19 year old Januzaj had a random good game and got hyped to all heavens, Giggs was often your best player in the CL which was pretty sad to behold, Welbeck missed chances left and right despite doing well to create them, Fellaini did not improve at all in the CM position and wasn't even winning the ball in the air, Chicharito was so inconsistent he was also dropped from Mexico's squad, Evra was also insanely inconsistent, and the rest of your squad was painfully average. And don't give me the whole thing of, "Oh well then how did they win the league last year," Chelsea was weaker, Arsenal was weaker, Everton was weaker, City was weaker, Liverpool was weaker, there wasn't the whole "small teams are amazing against big teams" like Sunderland, Southampton was weaker, Swansea was weaker... The league in general was nowhere as strong. And Ferguson had been with the team since before any of his players started playing, of course he knew them better and could get better results out of them, that type of thing doesn't come about in an instant. Sure, Moyes made some inept tactical decisions. Why not focus on improving that area of him (hire someone to handle tactics ala Tito supposedly did for Pep if that's what it takes) instead of just firing him?
